Method and apparatus for ultra thin wafer backside processing

1. A method for ultra thin wafer backside processing comprising the steps of: mounting a ring and a wafer to a tape, such that a front side of the wafer is adhered to the tape, and the wafer is mounted within the ring; grinding a wafer back side; after the mounting step, processing the wafer back side with metallization while the wafer is supported by a support structure formed by the tape and ring; and depositing a metal layer on the wafer backside after grinding, and mounting the wafer and the ring on a tape, wherein the mounting is performed after the wafer is ground to a predetermined thickness; and dicing the wafer after the processing step.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the wafer back side processing includes a process performed before said metallization, said process selected from the group consisting of ion implantation, annealing, etching, sputtering, and evaporation.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising annealing the tape before the wafer back side processing step in a vacuum chamber.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising picking up dies following the dicing step.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising transferring the diced wafer onto another tape and picking up dies with the device side facing up.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising partially grinding the wafer on a separate tape before the mounting step.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the ring comprises a toroidal ring.

8. A method for ultra thin wafer backside processing comprising the steps of: grinding a backside of a wafer to a desired thickness; mounting the front side of the ground wafer and a ring to a tape after the grinding step, such that the ground wafer is mounted within the ring; processing the wafer back side with metallization while the wafer is supported by a support structure formed by the tape and the ring after the mounting step; and depositing a metal layer on the wafer backside after grinding, and mounting the wafer and the ring on a tape, wherein the mounting is performed after the wafer is ground to a predetermined thickness; and dicing the wafer after the processing step.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the wafer back side processing includes a process performed before said metallization, said process selected from the group consisting of: ion implantation, annealing, etching, sputtering, and evaporation.

10. The method of claim 8 , further comprising annealing the tape before the wafer, back side processing step in a vacuum chamber.

11. The method of claim 8 , further comprising picking up dies following the dicing step.

12. The method of claim 8 , further comprising transferring the diced wafer onto another tape and picking up dies with the device side facing up.

13. The method of claim 8 , wherein the ring comprises a toroidal ring.

14. A method for ultra thin wafer backside processing comprising the steps of: grinding a back side of a wafer to a desired thickness; mounting a front side of the ground wafer and a ring to a tape after the grinding step, such that the ground wafer is mounted within the ring; processing the wafer back side with metallization while the wafer is supported by a support structure formed by the tape and the ring after the mounting step; transferring the processed wafer onto a separate dicing tape with the wafer back side adhered to the tape after the processing step; and depositing a metal layer on the wafer backside after grinding, and mounting the wafer and the ring on a tape, wherein the mounting is performed after the wafer is ground to a predetermined thickness; and dicing the wafer.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein the wafer back side processing includes a process performed before said metallization, said process selected from the group consisting of: ion implantation, annealing, etching, sputtering, and evaporation.

16. The method of claim 14 , further comprising annealing the tape before the wafer back side processing in a vacuum chamber.

17. The method of claim 14 , further comprising picking up dies following the dicing step.

18. The method of claim 14 , wherein the ring comprises a toroidal ring.

19. A method of depositing metal on side walls of die comprising the steps of: mounting a plurality of dies on a support structure comprising a ring and a tape, such that the die are mounted within the ring; and depositing metal onto a back side and side walls of the plurality of dies while the die are supported by the support structure; and depositing the metal as a metal layer on the sidewalls of the plurality of dies after grinding a wafer comprising the plurality of dies to a predetermined thickness.

20. The method of claim 19 , wherein the plurality of dies are formed using a dicing before grinding method on the support structure.

21. The method of claim 19 , wherein the plurality of dies are formed using a dicing before grinding method on the tape, the tape being then mounted to the ring to form the support structure.

22. The method of claim 19 , wherein the plurality of dies are mounted onto the tape and the tape is mounted onto the ring to form support structure after wafer separation into dies on a separate tape.

23. The method of claim 19 , further comprising stretching the tape with dies attached before the mounting step onto the ring.

24. The method of claim 19 , further comprising clamping the tape to a structure having a curved surface during the deposition step.

25. The method of claim 24 , wherein the tape is clamped such that the dies are disposed on a convex surface of the structure.